About nineteen days before the fire dragon was slain, Bart yawned as he saw the edge of the horizon start to get brighter with the approaching dawn. He'd like to go back to sleep, but with him having the last watch, he knew he wouldn't get that luxury. Though, his only comfort was that he would be exempt from all morning chores, including cooking.
He wasn't sure why, but whenever he put his hand to try cooking, with just a campfire and single pot for cooking, something always seemed to go wrong. He couldn't be sure if it was the ingredients he used, if it was the utensils or the fact he couldn't regulate the heat of the fire precisely, or if it was something else altogether.
He remembered being able to cook for himself and his parents without trouble, though typically that didn't happen often then. So, whenever he had the chance to avoid it altogether here, he jumped at the chance. No matter what else it cost him.
The night had been uneventful again. Tough with the announcement of Patricia and Patrick having encountered the fire dragon the day before, he couldn't help but wonder how close they were to them. Or if they were farther away than they would like.
Owen had been leading them, though Bart often wondered what he was using to determine the direction they were heading. As it often felt like he was choosing directions at random, and more than once he was rather confident that they'd started traveling in circles.
Given the fact of what Owen's ability was, Bart held no illusions that Owen wasn't aware of Bart's failing opinion of him. While Owen was good at advice for other problems, he didn't have the best sense of direction. Although, to be fair, it wasn't as bad as some characters in stories he'd heard about. If his parents had allowed it, he might have seen some of those, but since he knew they'd never allow that, he couldn't say how that would look like. For someone to have an even worse sense of direction than Owen.
Still, at least Owen seemed capable enough to remain optimistic and would lead them to water or any food they might need. Although, they'd still have to either pick the food, such as tubers or wild berries, or make sure the water was safe to drink, such as boiling it before letting it cool enough so they could drink it without worrying about any microorganisms in the water. Still, Bart was confident it could have been worse.
At the moment, none of them really knew where they were, just that the hills had gotten a little bigger and were a little rockier. However, Bart wasn't sure if they were in a mountain range or something else. While he knew a good amount from books, his firsthand knowledge of things was typically lacking. Not that he felt ashamed of that: there was only so much he could learn from books anyway.
As the horizon continued to get brighter, Bart felt his eyelids growing heavy. Even though he knew they'd be moving out right after they finished their breakfast, he figured he could at least sneak in a short nap during that time before the others woke him up. It wasn't like he'd be expected to do anything at that time anyway.
As his thoughts typically did when he got rather tired, they drifted back to Michelle Baker. He wasn't sure what his feelings towards her were, but he still felt her absence keenly. Like it was a wound that wouldn't heal. He knew there wasn't anything any of them could have done to have saved her, but he still missed her.
While the light didn't get bright on the horizon any faster than any other day, Bart became aware of another light source nearby. He didn't know what it was coming from, only that it came with a heat source too.
Not only that, but it was clearly approaching faster than the sun was rising. Since he didn't have any frame of reference as to what might be causing it or what it might mean, Barth felt his brain moving slowly as to how he should react.
Not to mention he hadn't quite identified where the source of light was coming from. Just that it was there.
However, when it burst into view over a copse of trees in the distance, Bart felt himself staring. This time for a different reason. He wasn't scared, it was more than he was stunned. It looked like a ball of fire that was flying at them. A ball of blue and purple fire with wings.
"A-alert!" Bart cried out after a moment, feeling like his vocabulary was insufficient to adequately express what he was currently feeling and annoyed that all that came to mind was that single word. He also found that he couldn't look away from what was approaching, no matter how much he wanted to.
When the others didn't immediately wake up and react, Bart tried again, feeling like his mind was frozen on that one word. "Alert! Alert!"
"What the hell are you going on about?" Elwin groaned. "And there's no need to have the fire going so brightly this early."
Bart wanted to say more, but all that his mind could form was that single word. "Alert! Alert! Alert!"
"Is that all you can say?" Owen griped as he got up with Elwin.
Barth reached over to his staff and pulled it close without looking at it. While he didn't think that it would be effective protection against what was coming towards them, he felt a little better about having it close. Like it would do more than wood normally does against pure flames. Almost like it was a comfort blanket for a toddler.
"Alert!" Bart blurted, feeling like his mind was becoming a broken record with it unable to let him form any other words.
"What's the alert about?" Elwin asked as he looked around. "There's nothing arou-" Bart knew Elwin saw what he was concerned about when he stopped speaking. "Shirt."
"What is it?" Owen asked as Bart clenched his hands around his staff.
"We have incoming!" Elwin said after a moment, the sound of his footsteps telling Bart he was already running. "Not sure what it is, but it's big!"
"Always the first to charge in, huh?" Leon said as Barth heard him rising and collecting his sword. "Not going to wait to see what we could do with our system?"
"Where's the fun in that? If we use that every time we encounter something, we're not going to have any time to actually fight it," Elwin called back.
Bart nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. Looking over as the hand, which seemed to have broken the hold the approaching light had on him, he saw that it led to Owen.
"Relax," Owen said gently. "You did your part as the one on watch. If you need some time, we'll hold it off and you can just join whenever you're ready."
Bart felt himself nod more than did so consciously. Everything around him was happening so fast that he was pulled back to when they had fought the troll in the dungeon. The first time that he'd been pulled back there. Even though he'd been taken out before they'd even had a chance to learn what was needed to defeat the troll.
When Bart turned to look back at what had been approaching, he was able to make out what looked like a dragon-shaped fire with flames that were blue and purple. Elwin was already facing off with it, using his greatsword to block any attack the creature of fire made at him as effortlessly as he did almost anything Bart had seen him do.
Somehow, seeing that, let Bart feel like his body could move again and he slowly stood up. Though, he worried that he'd fall down with how shaky his legs felt. Yet, it seemed like the more he moved, the more stable his body became. Like it was moving out of whatever had pushed it down.
As Bart started walking towards what Elwin was fighting, he could see Leon rushing out to assist his brother and Own looking around, like he was looking for something. Not that Bart could imagine what that 'something' might be.
Putting that out of his mind, he took a deep breath and took a few tentative steps towards the fight that was just starting. Those steps turned into him walking towards the fight, which then turned into him running to join. He wasn't sure what he might be able to do in this fight, but he wasn't going to remain behind everyone, trapped in the boss fight with the troll.
He was going to put that behind him, no matter how much he missed Michelle and wished she was alive again.